Payments on Hold til item delivered.

[peakxv]

Hi I am a 21-year member and they have put a hold on payments til after the items have been delivered. I contacted customer service and they said that it is new policy and the same for all members - new or old? Is this correct? Thanks in advance for your information. 

[peakxv]

Here is what Ebay Customer Service said " You have been here for a long time and you know how much efforts we put in to protect our members. We changed the whole payments process because our members were facing issues."

[marnotom!]

Your last feedback as a seller was over a year ago, which suggests to me that it’s been a while since your last round of selling.

If I’m correct about that, then it’s probably this time gap that’s triggered the payment hold. eBay wants to ensure that you’re still the same person using your account and that a fraudster hasn’t hijacked it.

[peakxv]

The service rep informed me that all sellers must wait until the item is received by the buyer before payment is advanced. I am just trying to verify if the information they provided me is accurate?

[peakxv · Accepted solution]

Okay, I had explained by management (the remote call center misinformed me and then hung up).  With "Ebay Payments" you are essentially starting like a new member and placed on an (unspecific) probationary period.  So much for the 21 years of membership/loyality/ratings. 

[mrdutch1001]

NO, it is not for ALL sellers, only those of us sellers who take time off from listing and/or don't sell anything for a period of time.

I am of same situation....did not list any items for over 6 months while I waited it out to see if I would leave eBay permanently or see if I really wanted to go through all the hassles of signing up for MP.

Well, the consequences of all that for when I eventually proceeded to sign up for MP = the loss of  being able to pick up where I left off with my previous seller record of  a successful seller in good standing = having to start all over just like a "new" seller=limits on listings/restrictions/payment holds. My 20 years of eBay experience , a member in good standing,etc. meant diddley-squat...initially...but there are eBay support folks who will eventually lend you an ear & help you out...just need to get someone higher up the chain of command...

My suggestion is that after a few weeks contact eBay via chat line and talk to someone  who will actually review your past seller experiences, someone who will actually listen to you, someone who has a more positive approach on things that will help you increase your limits,etc.

I am thankful I have 3 other selling sites because this starting over on eBay really stinks!

[peakxv]

Yes, and I didn't appreciate being lied to and bamboozled by a remote call center person.  I understand why they "offshore" their customer service to reduce cost and help their bottom line ... but at what cost to business integrity and customer satisfaction? 

[femmefan1946]

No.

It's specifically for members who are returning or occasional sellers.

The Hold also affects new sellers and sellers with questionable  customer service record (Defects).

And the phone reps are nice people but they are undertrained, minimum wage, subcontractors in boiler room in Utah.  They have a quota of calls to answer and their main purpose in life is to get you off the phone in time for their Sanka break.

The Chat, Twitter, and FaceBook staffers work for eBay and also give you a transcript so you can reveiw your conversation to learn what was said, rather than what you think was said.

[peakxv]

In Canada you're legally required to inform the client of any holds or potentially holds at the time of the transaction. As per ATMS, they are required to post a message May be a 3-5 day hold on your deposit press enter to continue ,,, Ebay doesn't follow this - they send a message, gif that "you've been paid" and to send the item now ... you need to make multiple clicks to learn that the money is actually in escrow or on hold in "their' bank until you fulfill their requirements.  Those financial issues should be stated at the time of listing the item so all are on the same page for the transaction or potential transaction process - it's an easy thing to do, but they seem to want the sale first, the money in their account second, and then let the seller deal with the shipping modalities to see if they actually have the item they claim to be listing. It's one of those increasing guilty until proven innocent scenarios in this global village. 

[marnotom!]

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@peakxv wrote:

In Canada you're legally required to inform the client of any holds or potentially holds at the time of the transaction. As per ATMS, they are required to post a message May be a 3-5 day hold on your deposit press enter to continue ,,, 

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What financial regulation(s) are you referencing?  I can't find anything like that on the Federal Consumer Agency's website that pertains to cheque holds, at least.

https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/rights-responsibilities/rights-banking/c...

It does state that for federally regulated financial institutions must provide a copy of their cheque hold policy when someone opens an account.  If one has an account with a non-federally regulated financial instution, one may have to make an inquiry.

eBay isn't an financial institution.  Its user agreement does state that funds may be held, however, and goes into more detail in its Payment Terms of Use and a linked help page.

For what it's worth, I don't recall seeing a message on an ATM  screen that my deposited funds may be held, but it's been some years since I switched from using a bank to using a credit union for most of my day-to-day finances.

[peakxv]

All ATMs have that disclaimer now for cheques - it often comes down to a credit decision and it's always good business practice to keep your clients posted on the worst-case scenario of  transaction services.  It's nonapplicable for cash which is essential what Ebay transactions are.  I don't mind footing the bill for $500.00 in package, gas, shipping, and insurance upfront and while eBay holds the funds in their daily interest savings account BUT it would be much more upfront and honest to simply insert a disclaimer that a a particular seller is on probation and is thus is expected to finance all shipments upfront.  Simple and direct.  For the record, the Manager did tell me that they have no disclaimer for this financial stipulation when listing but the information is available in the "Help" section ... to which I responded "But I didn't need any "help" in doing something I've done for 20 years and the onus should not have been on me to search the help for potential holds/escrow agreements. She also thanked me whole-heartedly for my 21 years service ..... to which I responded "thanks - but it really ain't worth a tinker's **bleep** at present". 

[peakxv]

No guarantees. Two in the last two days did not not keep/send a copy of it - seems they didn't like me stepping over them and asking to speak to an upper-level manager  (I think it may look bad on their performance chart), so better to discard the evidence, hang up the chat, and go on to the next in the queue!  

[peakxv]

Kelsie

10:50 AM

Just a moment while I gather the details of the listings and then I will transfer you to the team then.

Kelsie

10:54 AM

Thank you for your patience I will be transferring you now. Please stay connected, thank you.

Judy Ann

10:57 AM

Hi , just checking you’re with me?

Judy Ann

10:57 AM

I haven’t heard from you so I’m going to end this chat If you still require assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us again

(LOL - I waited seven minutes to be connected to "Judy Ann" ... and she gave me 7 seconds to respond, and then hung up the chat. 😞

[marnotom!]

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@peakxv wrote:

All ATMs have that disclaimer now for cheques - it often comes down to a credit decision and it's always good business practice to keep your clients posted on the worst-case scenario of  transaction services.  It's nonapplicable for cash which is essential what Ebay transactions are.

---

But eBay isn't a federally-regulated financial institution, as defined on that page I linked to in my previous post.  Neither is Adyen, for that matter.  eBay is a Marketplace Facilitator, Adyen is a Payments Processor.

eBay chooses to keep its users posted in the form of messages, bulletins and through its User Agreement.  As a two decade-user of eBay, you've probably seen quite a few changes to the UA and to the functioning of the site itself.  I remember having to change from Billpoint to PayPal in order to accept electronic payments, do you?

---

@peakxv wrote:

For the record, the Manager did tell me that they have no disclaimer for this financial stipulation when listing but the information is available in the "Help" section ... to which I responded "But I didn't need any "help" in doing something I've done for 20 years and the onus should not have been on me to search the help for potential holds/escrow agreements.

---

I hope that doesn't mean that you don't feel you need to stay current with changes to the User Agreement.  Personally, whenever someone else is handling my money, I try to find out as much about what they're doing and why they're doing it.  Maybe I'm weird that way.

For what it's worth, holds like this existed in the PayPal era, too, even when PayPal wasn't an eBay company.

And let me be clear here, I do think it would be nice to have the kind of "instant feedback" kind of notice that you're envisioning, but I don't think there's anything underhanded or illegal about the way eBay is handling this right now.  It just takes more work that I think you're accustomed to in order to find the information you need.

[peakxv]

" I don't think there's anything underhanded or illegal about the way eBay is handling this right now. " 

Put it this way - I don't think that they would attract as many new users or retain as many "old and valued members" if they were so professional, upfront in honest" in putting a see all disclaimer stating that (paraphrasing) "the freights on you till you prove yourself (again) and show us that you can actually package an item safely, ship it with all the required prerequisites, and have it delivered to the door of the buyer verbatim as per the listing details without issue. " If you can manage to do that for an (undermined) amount of transactions to our satisfaction then we may be willing to loosen our middle-man escrow hold. Until then let it be known that you are under probation to organize and fund the shipping on your nickel. If fine then please proceed and list your item! Accordingly, I find the whole customer service experience inappropriate when they go overboard to congratulate you on years of re: 

Yash

0:57 AM

Firstly, I see you opened this account 21 years ago, thank you so much for being a loyal member of the eBay family. We always keep this in mind that you are valuable.

Yash

1:15 AM

Theses holds are taken into account for safety of our members.

and then: 

Yash

1:20 AM

You have been here for a long time and you know how much efforts we put in to protect our members. We changed the whole payments process because our members were facing issues.

and then:

Yash

1:36 AM

There is no probation of any sort. It is just the process and very soon these holds will not be there.

Okay, it's not probation (re: process or period of testing or observing the character or abilities of a person in a certain role). Then what would one call it???      All that I wanted was an upfront and honest explanation, not a (now) three-day saga/goose chase.  That's the least a 21 - year "loyal" Ebay member with 100% rating should/could expect, isn't it? 

[marnotom!]

A 21-day payment hold has been used on eBay sales in some form for at least 13 of your 21 years on eBay:

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m02/i08/s03

[peakxv]

Historically, holds have been n/a to my account (the early days were a lot of checks/MOs).

"PayPal considers a number of factors in determining a whether a transaction may have a higher risk of dissatisfied buyers, including the following":

• Seller's % Positive Feedback in the last 30 days: 100%
• Seller's Detailed Seller Ratings in the last 30 days: 100%
• Final price for the item: wysiwyg
• Shipping & handling fee: At Cost
• Seller's eBay tenure as an eBay member: Long

The customer service rep dwelled on the fact that I had had no sales for the past 90 days, one at 120 - and that was the reason for the ongoing holds. I remember him that I had had items for sale throughout, that views were historically low on those items (undoubtedly pandemic/online sales competitor related), and that my personal buying ops had been severely reduced due to ongoing pandemic restrictions.  

I really think that the minds that imposed this financial barrier did not put much thought into tenure and historic customer satisfaction and seemed to heavily weigh the decision on sales made in the transitional period of their payments takeover at the height of an unprecedented pandemic. 

And there's always the financial greed side to where they can hold millions of dollars in daily interest savings account for extended periods.  I do not see in the disclaimer where any interest for 30+ day holds will be forwarded to the seller - so I am assuming that goes all in favor of the Ebay Bank Account. 

They well know that time is money and that pennies add up. 

[peakxv]

In case you haven't heard, there's been a pandemic. I have had listings on throughout and views in most cases were under 50. Unprecedented!  I am not in the Ebay business to make monthly sales quotas to appease bosses / managers. But that's exactly how they seem to have weighted this current financial bias. 

[peakxv]

I explained this without bias / without prejudice and exactly how it is.  I am therefore surprised that it has received no helpful thumbs up when other replies (in defense of Ebay) have received several. I can only deduct that those that frequent this forum sit closely to the Ebay Loyalty/Managerial Door and are here primarily to defend their policy and public image.  I also have sat close to the Ebay Loyality Door but am not afraid to express my opinion and tell like it is.  I also believe that Customer Service, in any business, should be upfront and honest with long tenure members and not attempt to misinform them in any way.  This was not the case with my recent experience. Ebay gets a single star "*" rating for that. 

[mrdutch1001]

I rarely defend eBay, but I do understand that there are limits to what some eBay support persons can do and in situations such as you have found yourself and similarly have I, we just have to tread cautiously and abide by the way things are here now. Our"freedoms" as sellers on eBay has been slowly squeezed shut over the years and for us longtime sellers it is getting harder and harder to tolerate much of what is going on here these days. eBay is nothing like it was and really has lost a lot of its "goodness".

I know you seem to have been treated somewhat more unjustly by eBay customer service, especially in the beginning, but since I already knew beforehand about the payment holds from everything I was seeing,hearing and reading about over the time I was not listing, I already knew I was going to experience the payment holds for quite some time going forward, so I am prepared for that aspect of the eBay selling experience.

As we do agree to the rules & policies, terms of use, if we want to remain as sellers on this site. we have to learn to adjust, adapt and carry on as best as we can.

Because I am indeed a very opinionated person and often expressed my opinion and told it like it is here in the community forums on both.CA &.COM, I have had too many posts deleted and been slapped down by moderators, so I now have to pick my battles... and my opinions(in some cases) have to be kept to myself, so that I do not get banned from the community.